School students in solidarity with the world’s poor

St Patrick’s School, Inglewood, celebrated Solidarity Day with a liturgy and then shared plain rice for lunch.

The children brought a donation for Caritas or a food item which they donated to their local food bank, instead of their usual lunch.

They talked about how this is a day when for a short time they remove themselves from their own ‘rich’ lives, and think about what life is like for so many—life with very limited food, poor drinking water, simple homes and little schooling.

Later that day they had a visit from a friend of one of our parents, Tessa, who worked in Papua New Guinea. She told them about life there.

They learnt there are 700 languages in PNG and most children speak at least three. The people are very poor, eating only what they can grow, so a lot of time and effort is spent growing food. It costs a great deal to go to school, and most families can’t afford to school all of their children so usually only the boys are educated.

In PNG you are ‘really rich’ if you can afford to eat rice. They ended the day with a new understanding of how very lucky they are.

Pictures: top: Ashlee, Angel and Grace from St Patrick’s School, Inglewood, enjoying their rice lunch in front of a Caritas ‘commitment to others’ poster in solidarity with teh poor of Papua New Guinea.
above: In Wilton, Cardinal McKeefry School students Nathan, Kate, Abigail, Lucy and Gabriel along with teacher Trish Masson, show their solidarity and support through a mufti-day to help raise funds for the annual Caritas Lenten Appeal.